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WILKES-BARRE - King’s College in Wilkes-Barre plans to rescind all past honors bestowed on Catholic bishops from the Diocese of Scranton accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests.

A statewide grand jury report released last week implicated three former Diocese of Scranton bishops — Jerome Hannan, J. Carroll McCormick and James C. Timlin — for hearing reports of abuse and helping to cover them up.

King’s, a Roman Catholic college, noted it has previously honored McCormick, who died in 1996, and Timlin, who retired in 2003 and is now 91-years-old.

Perhaps the most visible honor is the J. Carroll McCormick Campus Ministry Center at Jackson and Franklin streets in Wilkes-Barre, where the Chapel of Christ the King is located.

Following the accusations made in the grand jury report, college officials have been working on “appropriate responses,” which include stripping the college of the names of those who failed to stop child sexual abuse, the school said in a statement.

“In light of these reports, the College is in the process of rescinding past honors bestowed on bishops J. Carroll McCormick and James C. Timlin, including building names and honorary degrees,” the statement said.

According to the grand jury report, a Hazleton police officer in 1968 wrote to McCormick to report a priest, Robert Capparelli, accused of abuse.

McCormick confronted Caparelli and wrote himself “a secret note” found in confidential diocesan archives, the report said.

After Caparelli was arrested in the early 1990s for sexaully assaulting two altar boys, Timlin tried to keep him out of jail by writing a letter to the sentencing judge. Timlin asked the judge to let him send Caparelli to a Maryland, treatment center, a move the bishop said would save the state money, the report said.

Caparelli died in prison in 1994.

According to the report, Timlin learned in 1986 that a priest raped a young girl and impregnated her, then arranged for her to have an abortion.

Rather than remove him from priesthood, he transferred the priest to a parish in Hazleton and then Wilkes-Barre, the report said.

Timlin wrote a letter to the priest dated Oct. 9, 1986, and focused on the rape, the report said.

“This is a very difficult time in your life, and I realize how upset you are. I too share your grief,” Timlin wrote, according to a copy of the letter in the grand jury report. “With the help of God, who never abandons us and who is always near when we need Him, this too will pass away and all will be able to pick up and go on living. Please be assured that I am most willing to do whatever I can to help.”

The grand report jury accused 301 religious leaders state wide of misconduct, including 59 from the Diocese of Scranton.

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